Just the siblings | 弟弟妹妹

21 Sep 2023 - Austin Shen

One of my favourite parts of this year has been travelling in Europe with my siblings, Kevin and Senyi. We’ve never had the opportunity to travel together, just the three of us. But now we’re all grown up with grown-up incomes to spend but no proper adult responsibilities. So while I was still planning my time in Europe, the idea was floated for them to join for a bit. And soon enough they got their 6 weeks off work for an extended holiday.

Kevin and Senyi planned most of this holiday with big cities and events in mind, and I tagged along where it made sense. They chose Berlin for the cool grungy vibes and vintage stores, Munich for beer generally and Oktoberfest, other small cities in Germany so Kevin could speed legally on the Nurburgring and autobahn, Amsterdam for the art and culture lol, and Paris because it’s a beautiful city with delicious baked goods. Somehow, the best flight route to get to China (the next destination) was from Finland, so I was also able to show them the highlights of Helsinki before leaving Europe altogether. This plan was perfect for me too. I met them in Berlin after spending a nice week there with Ruby and also skipped their Paris leg to spend a bit longer in Helsinki, having just been with mum, ayi and ima.

Our time in Europe was chaotic and high-energy. They (Kevin most likely) definitely would have roasted me about being “old” for that comment. But it was true - an amazing time where we’d just constantly feed off each others good vibes. And chaotic because, like our mum, we can be also be a little too carefree in each other’s company. Just before our flight to Amsterdam, in the middle of Stuttgart city, Kevin was hungry so we all stopped for food less than two hours before take-off. If we were with dad, we’d have been waiting at the gate already for an hour. But since there was nobody there to push us along, we ended up leaving far too late and having to sprint from the restaurant, onto the train, through the airport, and push past the prepared and patient passengers in the security line to make it to the gate just in time. Last to board – the entire plane full of people waiting on us. And after all of that we’d take our seats at the front of the plane, the equivalent of business class on this random budget airline. Oops!

Despite this one-off stressful ordeal (and only for me and Kevin really – Senyi is not capable of feeling stress as it turns out), the vibes were perfect and it made for the best holiday. In Berlin we made friends with everyone in our shared hostel room. We spent the next days hanging out, getting food, playing games, and drinking as a big group. It was like a sleepover party at the hostel. Then in Munich while celebrating Oktoberfest, we shared tables with strangers, got to know the staff, and had wholesome chats with families and groups of friends. One especially lovely waiter gave us postcards as a parting gift. In every city we splurged on delicious food, drinks and dessert pretty much every night. So many fun once-in-a-lifetime experiences shared between the three of us in Europe. Such a special holiday.

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Loosely translated into some very simplified Chinese for family

今天我有一个非常好的机会跟我的弟弟和妹妹一起去欧洲玩。他们有六个星期假期，用四个星期去欧洲，最后两个星期去中国跟家人一起。这次是他们第一次来欧洲玩。所以，我让他们挑要去的地方。有几个城镇我去过了，但是大部分都是我也没去过的新地方。我们去了德国的几个城市，还有荷兰的阿姆斯特丹.他们也去了巴黎，但我刚跟妈妈，阿姨和姨妈去过。所以没跟他们去。欧洲最后的城市是芬兰.

逍龙和心意（SENYI）很好玩的，他们什么时候都很开心。但是有时候，我们一起玩的可能太放松的。有一天我们要坐飞机从德国去荷兰国。走以前逍龙想先吃午饭，所以我们去找汉堡包吃。找到了一个汉堡包点，坐了一会，忘记时间了。下次看了时间发现我们飞机马上走了。我们就要很急的跑去机场赶飞机。